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MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index by Yuwa Hedrick-Wong Knowledge Leadership MasterCard Worldwide Insights 2Q 2012

Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

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Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012 by Yuwa Hedrick-WongYuwa Hedrick-Wong Global Economic Advisor, MasterCard WorldwideDr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong is a business strategist and economist with 25 years of experience gained in over thirty countries. He was appointed Global Economic Advisor to MasterCard Worldwide in 2009. Prior to this role, he was Economic Advisor to MasterCard in Asia/Pacific, a position he held since 2001. As economic advisor, he chairs a MasterCard Knowledge Panel of leading economists, policy analysts, academics and business strategists for regular exchange and knowledge sharing. In 2007 he was appointed Advisor at Southern Capital Group, a private equity fund; and in 2008 he was appointed to the Investment Council of ICICI, India’s largest private bank.Yuwa is also currently the HSBC Visiting Professor of International Business at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. Canada, and is a frequent speaker at numerous international high-profile conferences.http://twitter.com/mastercardnewshttp://about.me/kornfeind

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Page 1: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

MasterCard Global Destination Cities Indexby Yuwa Hedrick-Wong

Knowledge Leadership

MasterCard Worldwide Insights2Q 2012

Page 2: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index

Introduction

This is the second edition of the MasterCardGlobal Destination Cities Index. During the periodsince the publication of the first edition of thisindex (launched in 2Q, 2011), growth of worldeconomic output has slowed, declining from5.2% in 2010 to 3.8% in 2011, with the growthrate of 2012 projected to drop further to 3.3%.1

However, cross-border travel by air between 132of the most important cities in the world coveredby this index (see Appendix A for the list of thecities and their regional distribution) is still grow-

ing both in terms of numbers of visitors and theircross-border spending. The total visitor numbersand cross-border spending for the world’s top 20destination cities are summarized in Table 1.

1 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Despite sluggish economic

growth around the world,

the number of people

traveling abroad continues

to increase.

This year, a record 16.9

million will touch down

in London –– for the

second consecutive year

it’s the world’s most

popular destination city

for overseas travelers.

Table 1. Global Top 20 Destination Cities

2011Visitors 2012 Change

Visitors 174.9Million

$217.8Billion

$1,245

184.9Million

$241.0Billion

$1,303

+5.7%

+10.6%

+4.7%

Total Cross-Border Spending*

Average Cross-Border Spending Per Visit

1. London

2. Paris

3. Bangkok

4. Singapore

5. Istanbul

6. Hong Kong

7. Madrid

8. Dubai

9. Frankfurt

10. Kuala Lumpur

11. Seoul

12. Rome

13. New York

14. Shanghai

15. Barcelona

16. Milan

17. Amsterdam

18. Vienna

19. Beijing

20. Taipei

16.9 mn

16.0 mn

12.2 mn

11.8 mn

11.6 mn

11.1 mn

9.7 mn

8.8 mn

8.1 mn

8.1 mn

8.0 mn

7.8 mn

7.6 mn

7.5 mn

7.3 mn

7.1 mn

6.9 mn

6.7 mn

6.2 mn

5.4 mn

New York

Chart 1. Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors (2012)

*Net of spending on airfare

Page 3: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 2

While the world’s top two

destination cities are in

Europe, the Asia/Pacific

region has a pair of

fast-growing contenders

in third and fourth place.

Bangkok is growing at a

6.5% rate with 12.2 million

visitors and Singapore

follows very closely with

11.8 million visitors and a

growth rate of 9.9%.

While the number of visitors in 2012 is growing at5.7%, the cross-border spending by these visitorsis far more impressive at 10.6%.

A similar picture is seen at the regional level.2

The overall pattern is clear; cross-border travel byair is a resilient trend that is embraced by growingnumbers of people worldwide, underpinned byvisitors’ robust willingness and capacity to spend.Both the cost of airfare as well as household in-comes have fluctuated from time to time; and nodoubt they will continue to do so in the future.But the growing need and desire to travel, espe-cially by air, are set to expand in spite of the upsand downs of the business cycles. The leadingglobal cities, which are also some of the mostsought after destinations by visitors from differentparts of the world, will continue to thrive.

Global Top 20 Destination Cities

Chart 1 presents the world’s top 20 destinationcities by numbers of visitors in 2012 (Appendix Aprovides a detailed explanation of the methodol-ogy used). As in 2011, London ranks first in theworld, with close to 17 million visitors in 2012,which is about 1.1% higher than in 2011. Parishas also retained its place in the second rank, with16 million visitors, but this represents a drop of0.6% compared with 2011. The two Asian citiesof Bangkok and Singapore also retain their 2011rankings of third and fourth place respectively.Their 2012 visitor numbers, 12.2 million inBangkok and 11.8 million in Singapore, however,represent very robust growth of 6.5% and 9.9%respectively.

Paris

Beijing

Dubai

Shanghai

London

Vienna

Barcelona

Hong KongTaipei

Amsterdam

Seoul

Frankfurt

Milan

Rome IstanbulMadrid

Bangkok

Kuala LumpurSingapore

Page 4: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

While the first to fourth ranks in the top 20 in2012 are the same as in 2011, there are somechanges in the other ranks. Table 2 shows thechanges by comparing the 2011 and 2012 rank-ings. Istanbul (fifth in 2012) displaces Hong Kong(fifth) and moves up by one rank. Dubai (eighth),Frankfurt (ninth), Kuala Lumpur (tenth) and Seoul(11) all move up one by rank as Rome falls by fourranks to 12. Shanghai (14) displaces Barcelona(15) and moves up by one rank. Other cities thatare unchanged at their 2011 position: Madrid (7),New York (13), Milan (16), Amsterdam (17), Vi-enna (18), Beijing (19), and Taipei (20).

The world’s top 20 destination cities by visi-tors’ cross-border spending are shown in Table 3,which are somewhat different from the rankingsby visitor numbers (see Appendix B for themethodology for estimating cross-border spend-ing by visitors in the destination cities). London isagain the world top ranked destination city andNew York still ranks second by visitor spending,although it ranks only 13 by visitor numbers.Bangkok moves up by one rank, displacing Parisas the third-ranking city by visitor spending. Fourcities from high-income countries move up inranks: Singapore (fifth, up by two ranks), Seoul

3 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Dynamic Istanbul has made

huge strides in recent years

and now ranks as the fifth

most popular destination

in the world.

Table 2. Comparison of 2011 and 2012 Rankings by Visitor Numbers

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

London

Paris

Bangkok

Singapore

Istanbul

Hong Kong

Madrid

Dubai

Frankfurt

Kuala Lumpur

Seoul

Rome

New York

Shanghai

Barcelona

Milan

Amsterdam

Vienna

Beijing

Taipei

London

Paris

Bangkok

Singapore

Hong Kong

Istanbul

Madrid

Rome

Dubai

Frankfurt

Kuala Lumpur

Seoul

New York

Barcelona

Shanghai

Milan

Amsterdam

Vienna

Beijing

Taipei

Rank 2012 2011

Page 5: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 4

A key metric is the amount

that visitors spend on their

visits; and it’s here where

London consistently excels.

It leads the world both

in visitor numbers and in

the average amount each

visitor spends.

(tenth, up by one rank) and Dubai (18, up by onerank), reflecting their higher costs of living andhence visitors tend to spend more in these cities.Tokyo (14) moves up by four ranks by virtue of itsrecovery in 2012 from the triple disasters of 2011.Istanbul also moves up by one rank to 11. It isworth noting that all these “upwardly mobile”destination cities are in either Asia or the MiddleEast, reflecting stronger growth in both visitornumbers and cross-border spending in these re-gions. For a destination like Sydney (in the eighthrank), which is a long way from anywhere elsewith the exception of New Zealand, visitors also

tend to stay longer once they get there, and theyspend more there as a result. Five cities in high-in-come countries move down by one or two ranks:Paris (fourth, by one rank), Los Angeles (sixth, byone rank), Madrid (seventh, by one rank), Zurich(twelfth, by two ranks) and Rome (19, by tworanks).

Table 3. Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitor Spend (2012)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

London

New York

Bangkok

Paris

Singapore

Los Angeles

Madrid

Sydney

Frankfurt

Seoul

Istanbul

Zurich

Taipei

Tokyo

Hong Kong

Barcelona

Miami

Dubai

Rome

Shanghai

United Kingdom

USA

Thailand

France

Singapore

USA

Spain

Australia

Germany

South Korea

Turkey

Switzerland

Taiwan

Japan

(SAR) China

Spain

USA

UAE

Italy

China

Rank

10.3%

6.8%

16.6%

1.5%

12.7%

6.4%

-0.8%

9.7%

9.6%

16.2%

20.7%

13.9%

20.5%

24.2%

9.5%

7.0%

8.4%

18.5%

2.9%

12.6%

Destination City Market

$21.1

$19.4

$19.3

$17.8

$12.7

$12.5

$11.5

$11.0

$10.9

$10.6

$10.6

$10.5

$10.5

$9.9

$9.5

$8.9

$8.8

$8.8

$8.3

$8.3

Visitor Spend (US Billion)

2012 % Growth 2011 & 2012

Page 6: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

The changes in the rankings by visitor spendingare summarized in Table 4. Bangkok (third rank)moves up one rank, displacing Paris, and Singa-pore (fifth rank) moves up two ranks displacingLos Angeles and Madrid. Seoul (tenth rank) andIstanbul (eleventh rank) both move up one rankdisplacing Zurich. Tokyo (fourteenth rank), recov-

ering from the triple disasters in 2011, moves upfour ranks to displace Hong Kong, Barcelona, andMiami. Finally, Dubai (eighteenth rank) moves upone rank to displace Rome.

5 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Tokyo is demonstrating its

ability to recover quickly

from the tragic setbacks

of 2011 by catapulting four

places higher than last year

in the average amount

each visitor spends.

Table 4. Comparison of 2011 and 2012 Rankings by Visitor Spending

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

London

New York

Bangkok

Paris

Singapore

Los Angeles

Madrid

Sydney

Frankfurt

Seoul

Istanbul

Zurich

Taipei

Tokyo

Hong Kong

Barcelona

Miami

Dubai

Rome

Shanghai

London

New York

Paris

Bangkok

Los Angeles

Madrid

Singapore

Sydney

Frankfurt

Zurich

Seoul

Istanbul

Taipei

Hong Kong

Barcelona

Miami

Rome

Tokyo

Dubai

Shanghai

Rank 2012 2011

Page 7: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 6

Asia/Pacific Top 10 Destination Cities

Asia/Pacific exhibits the strongest growth in visitornumbers and their cross-border spending amongall the regions of the world. As summarized inTable 5, visitor numbers grow by 9.5% in 2012 toreach 77.6 million in the top 10 destination citiesin Asia/Pacific; and their cross-border spending in-creases to US$104.7 billion in 2012 from US$90.8billion in 2011, representing an impressive 15.3%growth.

The top 10 destination cities by visitor num-bers in Asia/Pacific are shown in Chart 2. Bangkokis again the number one destination city in Asia(third in the world), a reflection of its strong andabiding appeal to tourists from the rest of theworld. Tokyo is expected to recover from the 2011disasters with 21.5% growth rate over 2011

while Taipei registers the second-strongest growthrate at 15.1%, reflecting the strong interest ofChinese tourists from the mainland in visiting Tai-wan. This is followed by Beijing, which shows agrowth rate of 14.7%.

Table 5. Asia/Pacific Top Ten Destination Cities

2011Visitors 2012 Change

Visitors 70.8Million

$90.8Billion

$1,281

77.6Million

$104.7Billion

$1,350

+9.5%

+15.3%

+5.4%

Total Cross-Border Spending*

Average Cross-Border Spending Per Visit

*Net of spending on airfare

The vibrant cities of the

Asia/Pacific region lead all

other regions in the

growth of visitor spending.

And the city that leads

the Asia/Pacific region

in both the total number

of visitors and in visitor

spending is Thailand’s

capital city, Bangkok.

Chart 2. Asia/Pacific Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitors (2012)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Bangkok

Singapore

Hong Kong

Kuala Lumpur

Seoul

Shanghai

Beijing

Taipei

Tokyo

Jakarta

12.2 mn

11.8 mn

11.1 mn

8.1 mn

8.0 mn

7.5 mn

6.2 mn

5.4 mn

4.3 mn

2.8 mn

Beijing

TokyoSeoul

Shanghai

Bangkok

Taipei

Hong Kong

Jakarta

Kuala Lumpur

Singapore

Page 8: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

In terms of visitor cross-border spending, thetop 10 in the region are summarized in Table 6.Bangkok, in first rank, commands visitor cross-border spending of US$19.3 billion in 2012. Thisis followed by Singapore with US$12.7 billion andSydney with US$11.0 billion. Tokyo’s (seventh) re-covery rate of 24.2% in 2012 puts it as thefastest-growing market for visitor spending, whileTaipei (sixth) has the second-highest growth rateat 20.5%, reflecting the impact of rising touristvisits from the mainland of China. This is followedby Beijing at 19.2%, and Bangkok at 16.6%.Growth rates of visitors’ cross-border spendingare generally very high in Asia/Pacific. Sydney andHong Kong, at 9.7% and 9.5% respectively, havethe “lowest” growth rates among the top 10.

7 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Although Sydney has

the fewest visitors of

the top ten Asia/Pacific

destinations with just 2.5

million, the average visitor

spending it receives is

greater than cities with

four times as many visitors.Table 6. Asia/Pacific Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitor Spend (2012)

Rank DestinationCity

MarketVisitor Spend (US$ Billion)

2010 2011 2012

% Growth 2011 & 2012

2012 Visitors(Millions)*

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Bangkok

Singapore

Sydney

Seoul

Taipei

Tokyo

Hong Kong

Shanghai

Beijing

Kuala Lumpur

Thailand

Singapore

Australia

South Korea

Taiwan

Japan

(SAR) China

China

China

Malaysia

16.6%

12.7%

9.7%

16.2%

20.5%

24.2%

9.5%

12.6%

19.2%

13.7%

$11.1

$9.0

$9.2

$7.7

$6.1

$10.2

$7.3

$5.6

$4.2

$4.7

$16.6

$11.3

$10.1

$9.1

$8.7

$8.0

$8.6

$7.3

$5.5

$5.6

$19.3

$12.7

$11.0

$10.6

$10.5

$9.9

$9.5

$8.3

$6.5

$6.4

12.2

11.8

2.5

8.0

5.4

4.3

11.1

7.5

6.2

8.1

*Excludes passengers returning to arrival country and includes visitors on non-stop flights only

Page 9: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Europe Top 10 Destination Cities

While Asia/Pacific has the highest growth rates invisitor numbers and cross-border spending, Europehas the highest visitor numbers and cross-borderspending. As Table 7 shows, collectively Europe’stop 10 destination cities command a total numberof visitors of 98.2 million in 2012, an increase of2.8% from 95.5 million in 2011. The increase invisitor cross-border spending is higher at 8.1%, forthe total to reach US$115 billion in 2012.

Chart 3 presents Europe’s top 10 destinationcities by visitor numbers. London, the world’snumber one ranked destination city, is naturallyalso in the first rank in Europe. Similarly, Paris,which ranks second in the world, is also in secondrank in Europe. The third rank, is occupied by Is-tanbul, which moves up by one rank in its worldposition to fifth with an impressive growth of vis-

itor numbers of 14.7%. In comparison, London’sgrowth rate in 2012 is very low at 1.1%, and Parisis actually seeing a decline of 0.6% in its visitornumbers. Frankfurt (fifth in Europe) moves up onerank to displace Rome (sixth) which falls by onerank.

Q2 2012 8

Istanbul, rich in history

and culture, is a rising star

as a travel destination.

With visitor numbers

growing at 14.7% and

growth in visitor spending

a sizzling 20.7%, it’s now

the third most popular

destination in Europe.

Table 7. Europe Top Ten Destination Cities

2011Visitors 2012 Change

Visitors 95.5Million

$106.4Billion

$1,114

98.2Million

$115.0Billion

$1,172

+2.8%

+8.1%

+5.1%

Total Cross-Border Spending*

Average Cross-Border Spending Per Visit

*Net of spending on airfare

Chart 3. Europe Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitors (2012)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

London

Paris

Istanbul

Madrid

Frankfurt

Rome

Barcelona

Milan

Amsterdam

Vienna

16.9 mn

16.0 mn

11.6 mn

9.7 mn

8.1 mn

7.8 mn

7.3 mn

7.1 mn

6.9 mn

6.7 mn

Amsterdam

Frankfurt

London

IstanbulBarcelona

ViennaParis

Rome

Madrid

Milan

Page 10: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

9 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

The top 10 destination cities in Europe by vis-itor cross-border spending are shown in Table 8.London and Paris are again in first and secondranks respectively. Istanbul is in fifth rank behindMadrid and Frankfurt, and exhibits the highestgrowth rate at a very impressive 20.7%, which isway ahead of Vienna (in ninth rank) with the sec-ond-fastest growth rate of visitor cross-borderspending of 16.3%. This is followed by Zurich (insixth rank) at 13.9%, then London at 10.3%.Madrid, alone among the top 10 in Europe,shows a slight decline in its visitor cross-borderspending at -0.8%. Cross-border spending by vis-itors is typically high in Europe. For instance, inLondon, visitor cross-border spending in 2012 isestimated at US$21.1 billion, and in Paris atUS$17.8 billion.

With their abundant

shopping and recreational

opportunities, both

London and Paris enjoy a

significant lead in visitor

spending over their rivals.

Table 8. Europe Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitor Spend (2012)

Rank DestinationCity

MarketVisitor Spend (US$ Billion)

2010 2011 2012

% Growth 2011 & 2012

2012 Visitors(Millions)*

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

London

Paris

Madrid

Frankfurt

Istanbul

Zurich

Barcelona

Rome

Vienna

Milan

United Kingdom

France

Spain

Germany

Turkey

Switzerland

Spain

Italy

Austria

Italy

10.3%

1.5%

-0.8%

9.6%

20.7%

13.9%

7.0%

2.9%

16.3%

7.1%

$17.3

$15.1

$10.2

$8.5

$7.2

$6.6

$6.3

$6.9

$5.4

$6.0

$19.1

$17.5

$11.6

$9.9

$8.7

$9.2

$8.3

$8.1

$6.8

$7.0

$21.1

$17.8

$11.5

$10.9

$10.6

$10.5

$8.9

$8.3

$7.9

$7.5

16.9

16.0

9.7

8.1

11.6

5.0

7.3

7.8

6.7

7.1

*Excludes passengers returning to arrival country and includes visitors on non-stop flights only

Page 11: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 10

Rio de Janeiro’s trajectory

as a travel destination is

definitely headed upwards.

It’s presently enjoying

28.6% growth in visitor

numbers and is investing

a massive $14.4 billion

within the city as it

prepares to host the 2016

Summer Olympics . It will

be the first city in South

America to host the

Olympics.

Latin America Top 10 Destination Cities

The top 10 destination cities in Latin Americacommand a total number of visitors of 16.6 mil-lion in 2012, up 7.3% from 2011. Cross-borderspending in these top 10 cities in 2012 is also upby 7.9%, reaching 16.3 billion. Spending per visitin 2012, however, is barely growing; just 0.6% atUS$982 per visit, compared with US$977 in 2011.

The top 10 destination cities in Latin Americaare presented in Chart 4. Eight cities occupy thesame top 10 positions in 2012 as in 2011, whileRio de Janeiro (eighth in Latin America) moves upby one rank displacing Caracas (ninth). Thestrongest growth is in Rio de Janeiro with an im-pressive 28.6%. Quito, in tenth rank, has the sec-ond-highest growth rate at 18.8%. If thesegrowth rates persist, Rio de Janeiro and Quito

could move up the ranks very quickly in the nextfew years.

Chart 4. Latin America Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitors (2012)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Mexico City

Buenos Aries

Sao Paulo

Lima

Bogota

San Jose

Santo Domingo

Rio de Janeiro

Caracas

Quito

3.5 mn

2.6 mn

2.4 mn

1.8 mn

1.6 mn

1.3 mn

1.1 mn

0.9 mn

0.8 mn

0.7 mn

Table 9. Latin AmericaTop Ten Destination Cities

2011Visitors 2012 Change

Visitors 15.4Million

$15.1Billion

$977

16.6Million

$16.3Billion

$982

+7.3%

+7.9%

+0.6%

Total Cross-Border Spending*

Average Cross-Border Spending Per Visit

*Net of spending on airfare

San Jose

Rio de Janeiro

Mexico City

Caracas

Lima

Buenos Aires

QuitoBogota

Santo Domingo

Sao Paulo

Page 12: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

11 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Already the second most

popular destination in

Latin America with its

visitor totals, Buenos Aires

has captured the coveted

top spot in the region for

visitor spending with a

total of US$3 billion.

Table 10 shows visitors’ cross-border spendingin the top 10 destination cities in Latin America.Buenos Aires is in first rank with US$3 billion ofvisitor cross-border spending in 2012, an increaseof 6.7% from 2011, and moving it from the sec-ond to the top rank in the region. In contrast, SaoPaulo drops to the second rank after being topranked in 2011, with visitor cross-border spendingthere declining by 5%. Quito, in the tenth rank,shows the strongest growth rate at an astonishing26.3%, consistent with its strong growth of18.8% in visitor numbers. This is followed by Bo-gota at an impressive 24.8%, Rio de Janeiro at16.1%, and San Jose at 15%. Sao Paulo is notthe only city that sees visitor cross-spending de-clining this year, however. Visitor cross-borderspending in Caracas in 2012 is in a sharp declineof 9.3% compared with the 2011 level.

Table 10. Latin America Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitor Spend (2012)

Rank DestinationCity

MarketVisitor Spend (US$ Billion)

2010 2011 2012

% Growth 2011 & 2012

2012 Visitors(Millions)*

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Buenos Aires

Sao Paulo

Mexico City

Lima

Bogota

San Jose

Rio de Janeiro

Santo Domingo

Caracas

Quito

Argentina

Brazil

Mexico

Peru

Columbia

Costa Rica

Brazil

Venezuela

Equador

6.7%

-5.0%

13.4%

14.0%

24.8%

15.0%

16.1%

2.6%

-9.3%

26.3%

$2.4

$2.5

$2.1

$1.1

$0.8

$1.0

$0.6

$1.0

$1.0

$0.4

$2.8

$3.0

$2.4

$1.2

$1.1

$1.2

$1.0

$1.0

$0.9

$0.5

$3.0

$2.9

$2.7

$1.4

$1.3

$1.3

$1.1

$1.0

$0.8

$0.6

2.6

2.4

3.5

1.8

1.6

1.3

0.9

1.1

0.8

0.7

*Excludes passengers returning to arrival country and includes visitors on non-stop flights only

DominicanRepublic

Page 13: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Chart 5. Middle East and Africa Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitors (2012)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Dubai

Cairo

Abu Dhabi

Johannesburg

Tel Aviv

Casablanca

Riyadh

Nairobi

Amman

Tunis

8.8 mn

3.3 mn

2.7 mn

2.5 mn

2.5 mn

2.1 mn

1.9 mn

1.8 mn

1.7 mn

1.6 mn

Q2 2012 12

Boasting such attractions

as a seven-star hotel and

the world’s tallest building,

Dubai continues its third

year holding the top spots

in two categories for the

Middle East and Africa

region: first, as the most

popular destination; and

secondly, for the highest

total in average visitor

spending.

Middle East & Africa Top 10 Destination Cities

The number of visitors to the top 10 destinationcities in the Middle East and Africa in 2012 is anincrease of 7.2% from 2011, bringing the totalto just below 29 million. Total cross-borderspending by visitors in these cities shows a moreimpressive growth of 10.4%, reaching US$34.1billion.

The top 10 destination cities of the region arepresented in Chart 5. Dubai maintains its numberone position, while showing a strong 15.3%growth in the number of visitors in 2012. Cairoalso retains its second-place position with 8.3%growth in 2012, suggesting that tourism there isrecovering well after the turmoil last year. AbuDhabi is in the third rank, up from sixth rank in2011, propelled by an impressive 17.9% growth.Casablanca (sixth) dropped one rank in 2012 fromits 2011 ranking while Tel Aviv (fifth) and Amman(ninth) dropped two ranks each. All three cities are

also registering a decline in visitor numbers. Riyadh(seventh) and Nairobi (eighth) both increase by onerank with robust growth of 10.4% and 10.0% re-spectively in visitor numbers. Tunis retains its tenthrank position, unchanged from 2011, but is show-ing a strong growth of 17.7% in 2012, a clear signof its return to normality after the upheaval of theArab Spring last year.

Table 11. Middle East and Africa Top Ten Destination Cities

2011Visitors 2012 Change

Visitors 27.0Million

$30.9Billion

$1,146

28.9Million

$34.1Billion

$1,181

+7.2%

+10.4%

+3.0%

Total Cross-Border Spending*

Average Cross-Border Spending Per Visit

*Net of spending on airfare

Tel AvivAmman

Tunis

Dubai

Nairobi

Johannesburg

Cairo

Riyadh

Casablanca

Abu Dhabi

Page 14: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Table 12 summarizes the visitor cross-borderspending in the top 10 destination cities in theMiddle East and Africa. Not only is Dubai in thenumber one position as in 2011, its visitor cross-border spending growth is a very impressive18.5% in 2012. Beirut also retains its second rankposition, with a 6.2% growth in 2012, despitenot making the top 10 by visitor numbers. This isbecause the average cross-border spending pervisit in Beirut is very high, estimated at US$4,522.In comparison, the average cross-border spendingper visit is US$1,004 in Dubai and US$1,387 in TelAviv.

Abu Dhabi, in sixth rank, has the highestgrowth at 20.7%, consistent with its performancein moving up from sixth rank to third rank in visi-tor numbers. Tunis, at tenth rank, is only slightly

behind Abu Dhabi with a growth rate of 19.8%.The only one among the top 10 with a declinein visitor cross-border spending (-7.2%) isCasablanca (seventh).

13 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Long known as the Paris

of the MidEast , Beirut ––

although it has the lowest

total visitor numbers of the

region’s top ten –– for the

third straight year, it is

again ranked second in the

total amount that visitors

spend.

Table 12. Middle East and Africa Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitor Spend (2012)

Rank DestinationCity

MarketVisitor Spend (US$ Billion)

2010 2011 2012

% Growth 2011 & 2012

2012 Visitors(Millions)*

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Dubai

Beirut

Tel Aviv

Johannesburg

Cairo

Abu Dhabi

Casablanca

Nairobi

Amman

Tunis

UAE

Lebanon

Israel

South Africa

Egypt

UAE

Morocco

Kenya

Jordan

Tunisia

18.5%

6.2%

5.2%

8.1%

8.4%

20.7%

-7.2%

16.7%

4.8%

19.8%

$6.4

$4.9

$2.8

$2.7

$2.9

$1.9

$2.0

$1.1

$1.1

$1.0

$7.4

$6.3

$3.3

$3.1

$2.7

$2.2

$2.0

$1.3

$1.4

$1.1

$8.8

$6.7

$3.5

$3.3

$3.0

$2.6

$1.9

$1.5

$1.4

$1.3

8.8

1.5

2.5

2.5

3.3

2.7

2.1

1.8

1.7

1.6

*Excludes passengers returning to arrival country and includes visitors on non-stop flights only

Page 15: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Chart 6. North America Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitors (2012)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

New York

Los Angeles

Toronto

Miami

Chicago

San Francisco

Washington

Atlanta

Vancouver

Houston

7.6 mn

3.9 mn

3.6 mn

3.4 mn

2.8 mn

2.3 mn

1.7 mn

1.7 mn

1.7 mn

1.5 mn

Q2 2012 14

Although the leading

destination cities in North

America receive far fewer

visitors from abroad than

do the cities of Asia/Pacific

or Europe, the levels of

visitor spending they

capture are significantly

higher.

North America Top 10 Destination Cities

Collectively the top 10 destination cities in NorthAmerica command a total of 30.2 million visitorsin 2012, up 4.1% from 2011, and US$73.8 billionof visitor cross-border spending, up 5.8% from2011. The North American region also has thehighest average visitor cross-border spending pervisit among all the regions in the world. AtUS$2,442 per visit in 2012, it is far ahead ofUS$1,350 in Asia/Pacific, US$1,181 in Middle Eastand Africa, US$1,172 in Europe, and US$982 inLatin America.

The top 10 destination cities in visitor numbersin North America are presented in Chart 6. Sevenof these 10 cities are in the same position as in2011. New York is in number one position, followedby Los Angeles in second rank, and the Canadiancity of Toronto in the third rank. Toronto, however,has the highest growth at 7.6%, followed by Wash-

ington, DC at 7.2%, Houston at 6.2%, Miami at5.5%, and New York at 5.2%. Washington, DC(seventh) moves up two ranks and displaces bothAtlanta (eighth) and Vancouver (ninth) which bothfall by one rank. Across the board, these top NorthAmerican cities are seeing healthy growth rates intheir visitor numbers in 2012.

Table 13. North AmericaTop Ten Destination Cities

2011Visitors 2012 Change

Visitors 29.0Million

$69.8Billion

$2,404

30.2Million

$73.8Billion

$2,442

+4.1%

+5.8%

+1.6%

Total Cross-Border Spending*

Average Cross-Border Spending Per Visit

*Net of spending on airfare

Chicago

San Francisco New York

Toronto

Houston

Los Angeles

Miami

Washington

Vancouver

Atlanta

Page 16: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Table 14 summarizes the visitor cross-borderspending of the top 10 destination cities in the re-gion. All 10 cities in 2012 are in the same positionas 2011. New York and Los Angeles are again infirst and second positions in their rankings by vis-itor spend while Miami is in the third rank. TheCanadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver are insixth and tenth rank respectively. Toronto, how-ever, has the highest growth at 10.2%, followedby Miami at 8.4% and Washington at 7.7%.

15 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Of the top ten destination

cities in the North America

region, only Toronto is

experiencing double-digit

growth in visitor spending. Table 14. North America Top 10 Destination Cities by International Visitor Spend (2012)

Rank DestinationCity

MarketVisitor Spend (US$ Billion)

2010 2011 2012% Growth

2011 & 20122012 Visitors(Millions)*

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

New York

Los Angeles

Miami

Chicago

San Francisco

Toronto

Atlanta

Washington

Houston

Vancouver

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

Canada

USA

USA

USA

Canada

6.8%

6.4%

8.4%

0.0%

2.9%

10.2%

1.6%

7.7%

5.9%

7.2%

$16.0

$10.2

$7.1

$6.1

$6.3

$3.6

$3.9

$3.4

$2.7

$2.4

$18.2

$11.7

$8.1

$7.0

$6.7

$4.3

$4.2

$3.7

$3.1

$2.8

$19.4

$12.5

$8.8

$7.0

$6.9

$4.7

$4.3

$4.0

$3.2

$3.0

7.6

3.9

3.4

2.8

2.3

3.6

1.7

1.7

1.5

1.7

*Excludes passengers returning to arrival country and includes visitors on non-stop flights only

Page 17: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 16

Whether drawn by

business or as tourists,

London’s visitors from

New York are the ones

that travel the farthest

and spend the most.

Origin Cities: Where the Arrivals Come From

Apart from estimating visitor numbers and visitorcross-border spending, the data analytics embed-ded in the Global Destination Cities Index is alsocapable of identifying where visitors are comingfrom (their “origin” cities) for each of the 132cities covered in the Index, and estimating howmuch these visitors spend.

For example, the top five origin cities for Lon-don are Dublin, New York, Stockholm, Amster-dam and Frankfurt, as shown in Chart 7. In 2012,it is estimated that there are 850,000 visitors fromDublin, spending US$482 million in London. NewYork is the second largest origin city for London,

sending 756,000 visitors to London in 2012, witha total cross-border spending of US$1,088 mil-lion. Thus, New York is the largest origin city forLondon for cross-border spending. On a per-visitbasis, visitors from New York are also big spendersin London, with an average of US$1,439 per visit,much higher than the average of visitors fromStockholm at US$808 and from Dublin at US$567per visit. In terms of growth, however, Frankfurthas the highest growth rate of visitors to Londonat 20.8%, followed by Dublin at 8.6% and NewYork at 5.5%. Stockholm’s visitor number is, incontrast, down by 2.7% in 2012.

Chart 7. Top Origin Cities - First Place: London

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Dublin

New York

Stockholm

Amsterdam

Frankfurt

850

756

537

481

416

Origin Cities 2012 Visitors(000s)

$482

$1,088

$434

$382

$331

2012 Spend(US$ mn)

Dublin

New York

Frankfurt

Amsterdam

London

Stockholm

Page 18: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Bangkok is the number one destination city inAsia/Pacific by both visitor numbers and visitorcross-border spending. The top five origin citiesfor Bangkok are shown in Chart 8, and they areTokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and KualaLumpur, all from within the Asia/Pacific region. Ona per-visit basis, visitors from Hong Kong andTokyo have the highest spending at US$2,401and US$2,265 per visit respectively. In compari-

son, visitors from Singapore, Seoul and KualaLumpur spend US$1,039, US$1,404 and US$773per visit respectively. Growth rates of visitors fromthese origin cities are uniformly high, with visitorgrowth rates from Singapore, Seoul and KualaLumpur exceeding 20%.

17 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

While Tokyo and Singapore

send the largest numbers

of visitors to Bangkok,

those from Tokyo spend

more than twice as much

during their visits.

Chart 8. Bangkok - Top Origin Cities

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Tokyo

Singapore

Hong Kong

Seoul

Kuala Lumpur

936

881

737

683

477

Origin Cities 2012 Visitors(000s)

$2,121

$916

$1,770

$959

$369

2012 Spend(US$ mn)

Tokyo

Bangkok

Hong Kong

Kuala Lumpur

Singapore

Seoul

Page 19: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 18

Of the five leading cities

sending visitors to Dubai,

London provides well over

twice as many as visitors––

and they spend more than

four times as much as do

those from the other cities.

Dubai is the top ranked destination city in theMiddle East and Africa region. Its top five origincities are presented in Chart 9. London is thenumber one origin city for Dubai, with 803,000visitors. While the growth rate of London visitorsis relatively modest at 5.1%, London visitors, atUS$1,495, have the highest spending in Dubaiper visit among the top five origin cities. In com-parison, the average spending per visit by visitors

from the other four top origin cities is just belowUS$900. But the growth rates of visitors from Mu-nich, Frankfurt and Paris are astonishingly high at29.5%, 22.1% and 20.2% respectively.

Chart 9. Dubai - Top Origin Cities

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

London

Paris

Munich

Frankfurt

Kuwait

803

336

305

295

266

Origin Cities 2012 Visitors(000s)

$1,200

$298

$271

$261

$236

2012 Spend(US$ mn)

Frankfurt

MunichParis

Dubai

London

Kuwait

Page 20: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

19 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Of the top five origin cities

that have helped make

Mexico City the leading

destination city in the Latin

America region, Miami

leads in three important

categories–– the highest

number of visitors sent,

the highest amount that

they spend, and the 17.1%

increase this year in the

number of visitors they’re

sending to Mexico City.

In the Latin American region, the top rankingdestination city is Mexico City. The top five origincities for Mexico City are all in the US: Miami,Houston, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, asshown in Chart 10. Their average spending pervisit is estimated at around US$600. But there aresignificant differences between them in terms ofgrowth. Visitors from Miami and New York toMexico City are growing at 17.1% and 12.5% re-

spectively, whereas visitor numbers from Los An-geles and Houston are declining by 20.7% and0.8% respectively.

Chart 10. Mexico City - Top Origin Cities

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Miami

Houston

New York

Los Angeles

Atlanta

384

318

315

295

173

Origin Cities 2012 Visitors(000s)

$239

$197

$195

$184

$107

2012 Spend(US$ mn)

AtlantaLos Angeles

Houston

Miami

New York

Mexico City

Page 21: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 20

New York City enjoys the

luxury of having visitors

arriving from nearly

everywhere in the world.

However, of its top five

originating cities, visitors

from both London and

Tokyo contribute a far

greater percentage due

to their higher spending

patterns.

New York is the top destination city in NorthAmerica, and its top five origin cities are London,Toronto, Tokyo, Paris and Frankfurt. Growth ratesof visitors from these origin cities vary a greatdeal. London and Frankfurt visitors are growingonly modestly at 3.9% and 2.8% respectively.Toronto visitors, however, are growing at an as-tonishing rate of 28.4%. In contrast, visitor num-bers from Tokyo and Paris are shrinking by 3.5%

and 6.1% respectively. The decline in visitors fromTokyo has the biggest impact on spending, as theaverage spending by Tokyo visitors is estimated atan impressive US$3,878, much higher than visi-tors from Toronto (US$945), London (US$1,663),and Paris (US$1,361). Frankfurt visitors spend, onaverage, a relatively high US$2,505 per visit.

Chart 11. New York - Top Origin Cities

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

London

Toronto

Tokyo

Paris

Frankfurt

1,294

849

369

306

288

Origin Cities 2012 Visitors(000s)

$2,152

$803

$1,429

$417

$722

2012 Spend(US$ mn)

Toronto Paris Frankfurt

London

New YorkTokyo

Page 22: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

In estimating these visitor numbers, the situation be-comes complicated when the cities involved are “hub”cities, such as London, Dubai, and Frankfurt. While Lon-don itself is a major hub city, three of its top five origincities are also considered important hub cities: NewYork, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The methodology ofestimating the “true” visitors from origin cities to des-

tination cities is detailed in Appendix A. But it is usefulto illustrate how it is done with a real example. Box Aapplies the methodology to London and its top five ori-gin cities to illustrate how the distortion caused by the“hub effect” is eliminated in order to arrive at more ac-curate estimates of visitor numbers.

21 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Box A. Eliminating the Distortions Caused by “The Hub Effect”

A number of destination cities are important“hubs” for air travel connectivity, and they typi-cally have very large numbers of transit passen-gers arriving and departing. In some hub cities,transit passengers account for up to two-thirds ofthe total arrivals. So it is inaccurate to just countthe arrival numbers as “visitors” to these cities.Appendix A provides a detailed explanation ofhow the “hub effect” is being dealt with in orderto estimate more accurately the visitor numbersin these cities.

The process for eliminating the distortioncaused by the hub effect can be illustrated withLondon and its top five origin cities. London is it-self a major hub, with many passengers arrivingonly to take another departure flight for their on-ward journey. Among its top origin cities, NewYork, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam are also impor-tant hub cities. Many arrivals in London fromthese cities are not residents of these cities; in-stead, they had traveled to these cities from else-where in order to take a flight to London. Sothese non-resident arrivals cannot be counted asvisitors to London from these cities.

Table 15 outlines the process of how the dis-tortion caused by the hub effect is being system-atically eliminated.

• The arrivals in London can be broken downinto two key categories: visitors (column 1)and non-visitors. Non-visitors are in turn bro-ken down into two sub-categories: transitpassengers arriving in London to transfer toanother outbound flight (column 4), and Lon-don residents returning home after travelingabroad (column 5).

• The visitor numbers shown in column 1 alsoconsist of two subcategories: visitors who areresidents of the origin city (column 2) andwho are not residents of the origin city (col-umn 3).

Following this process, we have estimated thatthere are only 838,426 “true” visitors arriving inLondon from Dublin (column 2). The total numberof 850,047 (column 1) of visitors to London fromDublin includes 11,621 (column 3) who are non-residents of Dublin who travel to Dublin to boarda flight to London. Thus, only 838,426 of themare residents of Dublin (column 2). Apart from the850,047 visitors from Dublin, it is estimated thatthere are 673,259 arrivals from Dublin who aretransit passengers (column 4), who stop in Lon-don in order to board another outbound flight togo elsewhere. Then there are also 598,804 resi-dents of London returning after visiting Dublin(column 5). So the numbers shown in columns 4and 5, while they are counted as arrivals in Lon-don, are not counted as visitors to London.

Page 23: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 22

So the Dublin -London example illustrates thatwith the total arrival number of 2,122,109 in Lon-don from Dublin (columns 1 + 4 + 5), only850,047 (40%) are counted as “visitors to Lon-don,” and of which only 838,426 (39.5%) are“visitors from Dublin to London.”

Similarly, “visitors to London” from the NewYork–London connection account for only 31.6%of total arrivals in London from New York, and ofwhich only 28.5% are “visitors from New York to

London.” For Frankfurt, only 38.9% of arrivals inLondon from Frankfurt can be counted as “visi-tors to London,” and only 34.4% can be countedas “visitors from Frankfurt to London.”

Table 15. Breakdown of London’s Arrivals from its Top Five Origin Cities in 2012

1

Visitors who areresidents of the

origin cityVisitorsOrigin

City

Dublin

New York

Stockholm

Amsterdam

Frankfurt

850,047

756,337

537,352

481,303

416,349

838,426

681,711

536,262

407,783

367,170

2

Visitors who arenon-residents

of the origin city

11,621

74,626

1,090

73,520

49,178

3

Passengers transiting through

London

673,258

711,921

56,364

712,161

360,264

4

Residents of London returning

from abroad

598,804

924,021

221,616

499,567

292,294

5

Page 24: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

23 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Of the world’s top twenty

fastest-growing cities,

thirteen are experiencing

double-digit growth.

Rio de Janeiro tops the list

with its dazzling 28.6%

growth rate.

Table 16. The World’s Top 20 Fastest Growing Destination Cities by Visitor Numbers

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

8

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Rio de Janeiro

Tokyo

Quito

Abu Dhabi

Tunis

Dubai

Taipei

Istanbul

Beijing

Bogota

Lima

Riyadh

Nairobi

Singapore

Seoul

Cairo

Shanghai

Toronto

Washington

Caracas

28.6%

21.5%

18.8%

17.9%

17.7%

15.3%

15.1%

14.7%

14.7%

12.6%

11.7%

10.4%

10.0%

9.9%

9.8%

8.3%

8.2%

7.6%

7.2%

7.0%

Rank2012 Growth RateDestination City

The Fastest Growing Destination Cities

The rankings of the destination cities look very dif-ferent from the perspective of growth. Table 16presents the rankings of the world top 20 destina-tion cities in terms of growth rates of visitor num-bers.* Rio de Janeiro ranks at the top with aneye-popping growth rate of 28.6%. Tokyo’s re-covery puts it in second place at 21.5% followedby Quito at 18.8%, Abu Dhabi at 17.9%, Tunisat 17.7% and Dubai at 15.3%. Tunis, in fifth po-sition, provides strong evidence that Tunisia is rap-idly returning to normality (as is Cairo at sixteenthrank) after a tumultuous period in 2011. Taipei’sgrowth rate at seventh rank is driven by touristsarriving from mainland China, who can visit Tai-

wan today through direct transport links afterbeing barred from going there for more than fivedecades. Istanbul and Beijing share the eighthrank position at 14.7% growth.

Ranks one to 11 are all occupied by destina-tion cities located in emerging markets. Apartfrom Tokyo, Singapore is the highest-ranking des-tination city in a developed market, in the four-teenth rank, followed by Seoul in the fifteenth. Infact, six of these top 20 fastest growing destina-tion cities are in Middle East and Africa, anothersix in Asia/Pacific, and five in Latin America. Thus,in the growth of visitor numbers, emerging mar-kets dominate.

*Top 20 growth rate ranking of the combined list of each of the 5 regions' top 10 cities which were ranked by visitor numbers.

Page 25: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Q2 2012 24

It’s interesting to note

that the vast majority of

the cities on the list of

fastest-growing cities in

the world are government

capitals.

One example is Quito,

Equador which now tops

the list of fastest-growing

destination cities with its

very robust 26.3% rate of

growth.

From the perspective of growth of cross-bor-der spending, the rankings are quite different, aspresented in Table 17.* Quito is in the top rankwith a very impressive growth rate of 26.3%, fol-lowed by Bogota in the second rank with 24.8%.Both cities are in the Latin America region. Tokyois in the third rank with a growth rate of visitorcross-border spending of 24.2%, suggesting thattourists are returning to Japan generally, andTokyo in particular, after the triple disasters in early2011. Abu Dhabi and Istanbul are tied at thefourth rank with a growth rate of 20.7%. Taipeiis in sixth rank at 20.5%. The growth rate ofcross-border spending by visitors in Tunis is

19.8%, putting the city in seventh rank. Beijingfollows in the eighth rank with a growth rate of19.2%.

The regional distribution of these top 20fastest growing destination cities is more diverse.Seven of the 20 are in Asia/Pacific, from bothemerging and developed markets. Four are lo-cated in Middle East and Africa, and six are lo-cated in Latin America. However, three Europeancities also make their appearance among the top20. Istanbul is ranked fourth with a 20.7%growth rate. Vienna is in eleventh rank, with a ro-bust growth rate of 16.3%. Zurich is in sixteenthrank at 13.9%.

Table 17. The World’s Top 20 Fastest Growing Destination Cities by Visitor Cross-Border Spending

1

2

3

4

4

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Quito

Bogota

Tokyo

Istanbul

Abu Dhabi

Taipei

Tunis

Beijing

Dubai

Nairobi

Bangkok

Vienna

Seoul

Rio de Janeiro

San Jose

Lima

Zurich

Kuala Lumpur

Mexico City

Singapore

26.3%

24.8%

24.2%

20.7%

20.7%

20.5%

19.8%

19.2%

18.5%

16.7%

16.6%

16.3%

16.2%

16.1%

15.0%

14.0%

13.9%

13.7%

13.4%

12.7%

Rank2012 Growth RateDestination City

*Top 20 growth rate ranking of the combined list of each of the 5 regions' top 10 cities which were ranked by visitor spending.

Page 26: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Conclusions

This 2012 edition of the MasterCard Global Des-tination Cities Index presents a picture of resilientgrowth in cross-border visitor numbers and theircross-border spending in 132 of the world’s mostimportant cities. In all the key regions of theworld, visitor numbers and their spending aregrowing, in spite of the persistent Euro Zone crisis,worries over rising political risks in the MiddleEast, and lingering concern over the weak recov-ery in the US. The established leading destinationcities like London, Paris, Bangkok, New York, andSingapore continue to occupy top rankings interms of both visitor numbers and their cross-bor-

der spending. But new and dynamic destinationcities like Istanbul, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Shang-hai are clearly moving forward with great momen-tum. From the perspective of growth rates in bothvisitor numbers and their cross-border spending,destination cities from emerging markets clearlydominate, even though many of them are startingfrom a very low base. This diversity in geographicdistribution and mix of growth drivers behind therise of destination cities are also creating the bestconditions for sustaining their dynamism andsuccess.

25 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Whether the destination

cities are in developed or

emerging markets, visitor

arrivals and expenditures

are growing at a very

healthy pace.

This combination will serve

to improve the quality of

peoples’ lives and benefit

societies in all the world’s

geographic regions.

Page 27: Global Top 20 Destination Cities by International Visitors 2012

Appendix A. Methodology for Estimating AirPassenger Arrivals in DestinationCities

A total of 132 of the world’s most important cities arecovered in this index. 42 of them are located in theAsia/Pacific region, 36 in Europe, 19 in Latin America,21 in Middle East and Africa, and 14 in North America.

The methodology for estimating air passenger ar-rivals in each of the destination cities is comprised ofthe following steps.

1. The Total Pipeline of passenger flows is based onoverall passenger capacity between international cities:Every month the OAG collects the airline flight sched-ules for the next 12 months on a global basis. Wherepreviously we only used the data from key months (andthe associated 12 month schedule forecasts arising forthose months) as the basis of our one-year projections,we now use the full 12 months of flight schedule

data to construct our forecasts. Using only non-stopflights we extract for each city to city pair the numberof weekly flight frequencies and passenger Capacity.

2. Load Factors for each city pair are used to deter-mine the percentage of seats that are actually filled withrevenue paying passengers: On any airline flight route,the average percentage of seats filled (i.e. the “load fac-tor”) varies. This information is extremely sensitive forcompetitive reasons and airlines will only release thisdata with a one-year lag. Nevertheless, by using the his-torical load factor on most city-to-city flight routes, wecan estimate a proxy for the current and forecasted loadfactor. We used a weighted average of the historicalload factors with heavier emphasis on the most recentyears, but airlines will try to maintain a load factor ofbetween 70 to 80% by changing the number of weeklyflights or by changing the aircraft type to increase ordecrease passenger capacity. As such, for determiningthe years for which we do not have load factor numberswe apply an increasing improvement of 5% per year onthe historical average, starting at 70% and improving to85% over time.

Q2 2012 26

Coverage of Destination Cities

Region

Asia/Pacific(42 Cities)

Ahmedebad, Almaty, Bangkok, Beijing, Bengaluru, Chengdu, Chennai, Coimbatore, Colombo, Dalian,

Delhi, Dhaka, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hanoi, Harbin, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Islamabad,

Jakarta, Karachi, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Lahore, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, Nanjing, Osaka, Pune,

Qingdao, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzen, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tianjin, Tokyo, Xi an, Xiamen

Europe(36 Cities)

Amsterdam, Ankara, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen. Dublin,

Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Istanbul, Kiev, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Minsk,

Moscow, Munich, Novosibirsk, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Vienna, Vladivostok,

Warsaw, Yekaterinburg, Zurich

Latin America(19 Cities)

Belo Horizonte, Bogota, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cordoba, Curitiba, Lima, Medellin, Mexico City,

Monterrey, Montevideo, Quito, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, San Jose, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo

Middle East & Africa

(21 Cities)

Abu Dhabi, Accra, Amman, Beira, Beirut, Cairo, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dakar, Damascus, Dubai, Durban,

Kampala, Johannesburg, Lagos, Maputo, Nairobi, Riyadh, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Tunis

North America(14 Cities)

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia,

San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington

Cities

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3. We can now estimate the total passengers be-tween any given city pair: Using the data above we cannow gain a first estimate of the number of passengersdeparting from one city to another using the equationof Estimated Travelers = Load Factor * PassengerCapacity

4. From total passengers we need to net out pas-sengers who are on the return leg of their travels i.e.on their way home: On any flight there will also be pas-sengers who are returning home after having visited thedeparture city. For example, in the case of a Caracas toMiami flight there will be US passengers returning backto Miami (after having visited Caracas). We want to netout those passengers. As airlines do not reveal the res-idency of their passengers there is no way to know at acity to city level what portion of passengers on eachflight is returning home. We need to go to the country-country level for this and for that we use UNWTO(United Nations World Tourism Organization) data. Theycollect the number of annual residents travelling be-tween country pairs. We use this number to create aratio of Departure Country A to Arrival Country BRatio = Annual Number of Residents from CountryA going to Country B /{Annual Number of Resi-dents from Country A going to Country B + An-nual Number of Residents from Country B goingto Country A}

5. An example using Caracas - Miami: In the case ofthe Caracas - Miami route, in 2009 there were 507,185Venezuelans in total travelling to the US by air, and76,059 US residents in total travelling to Venezuela byair, implying a ratio of 87% which is the estimated ratioof Venezuelans on any given flight from Venezuela tothe US. We use this ratio to net out returning US resi-dents and to obtain the number of Venezuelans travel-ling from Caracas to Miami as follows: EstimatedVenezuelan Resident Travelers from Caracas toMiami = Estimated Travelers * Ratio of VenezuelanResident Travelers to Total Travelers {US &Venezuela}

6. Improving the basic data: Where UNWTO datawas not available for a country pair (data available for76% of the country pairs), data was sourced at the na-tional level where available (2% of city pairs) or we usedthe ratio of the IMF Balance of Payments travel debit

accounts to construct a secondary proxy ratio. In thisrelease we have focused on key border regions aroundthe world where the UNWTO cross-country visitor datamay give less accurate ratios. In all cases, the generalidea was to use overnight visitors (where data was avail-able) instead of overall visitors to construct more accu-rate departure-arrival ratios of air travelers. This hasresulted in some shifts to the flow of travel betweenthese areas (and therefore overall expenditure as well).The border regions include the Mexican-US border, EUcountries which share a border, the Singapore-Malaysiaborder, and the Ukraine-Russia-Belarus-Moldova borderareas. Furthermore, in similar fashion, the ratios for theHong Kong-China-Macau borders have been adjustedusing overnight and/or air travel only visits which nowallows us to add China resident air arrivals into HongKong and Macau via air and vice versa (both were pre-viously excluded).

7. For “hub” cities like Frankfurt, Dubai, Singapore,there are additional complexities in netting out transitpassengers: As explained previously, on any given flightthere are departing residents from the departure coun-try, returning visitors, and a third group of residuals. Theresiduals group can be a low proportion of the passen-gers for typically non-hub cities, and very high for hubcities. To estimate the proportion of this group, we use:Residuals = Total Estimated Passengers – Numberof Departing Residents – Number of Returning Vis-itors. Residuals constitute two main groups: (A) Non-residents (of either the origin or destination country)who from the origin city are visiting the destination city;and (B) residents of the origin country AND non-resi-dents (of either the origin or destination country) whowill be transiting through the destination city withoutvisiting it. We are interested in Type A but in order toseparate the residuals into its two components we usea relative connectivity ratio “RCR” that is based on theInternational Air Connectivity Index (IACI) scores previ-ously created, which is RCRo-d= ( IACIo / (IACIo+IACId) )2

Where

RCRo-d: Is the Relative Connectivity Ratio of theOrigin City relative to the Destination City

IACIo: Is the International Air Connectivity Indexof the Origin City

27 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

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IACId: Is the International Air Connectivity Indexof the Destination City

We separate out Type A by using: A = Residual x RCR& B

We then add A {Non-residents (of either the depart-ing or arrival country) who from the departure city are

visiting the arrival city} to the number of residents visit-ing the arrival country {calculated earlier} to obtain theestimated number of travelers who will visit the destina-tion city: Visitors = Origin Country Residents + Non-Residents from other Countries.

Appendix B. Methodology for Estimating Cross-BorderSpending by Arrivals in Destination Cities

To estimate the average expenditure of outbound trav-elers, we again have to look at country to country data.City to city expenditure data is difficult to obtain (partialfigures do exist but these are not publicly available). Forthis we use the United Nations’ Trade in Services data-base (travel component) which does not include trans-port, i.e. airfares at the paired country level. For countrypairs where this data is not available we default to usingthe average expenditure per traveler in destinationcountries using IMF’s Balance of Payments Travel Creditdata and the total number of visitors to the country. Insome cases the average expenditure of city pairs can goextremely low when the UNWTO resident departure in-clude large levels of overland cross border travel be-tween neighboring countries and typically involvesreturning on the same-day. We therefore adjust our ra-tios for key border regions by using overnight visitorsinstead of total visits to eliminate the same-day visitsissue. In these cases, we have also used expendituresby overnight visitors (instead of total visitor spends) tocalculate average inbound expenditures. While we haveattempted to “clean” the data of these same day trips,we have also put in place a default system to “catch”city pairs with border issues and for which there is inad-equate data.

As we are dealing with air travel, we assume that avisit typically involves a stay of one night or more andwe adjust for this by setting minimum lower range for

the average expenditure per traveler at US$500 for bor-dering arrival countries and US$700 for non-border ar-rival countries. This lower spending floor was triggeredin about 30% of the city-pairs.

The formula is as follows: average expenditure ofvisitors = total amount spent on travel in the des-tination country by residents of the origin country(ex air tickets) /total number of origin country res-idents traveling to the destination country.

Based on the latest year available for average expen-diture per traveler we then project the average expen-diture per traveler to 2012 using the nominal growthrate of GDP per Capita provided by the IMF WEO fore-cast database. Using the estimated number of residentsflying from each origin city to each destination city, wecan then calculate the estimated expenditure by multi-plying in the average expenditure to obtain city to cityexpenditure estimates. Thus, for each city pair: esti-mated visitor spend = number of visitors x aver-age expenditure in the destination country

Q2 2012 28

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Glossary

Visitor: Person who is traveling on a non-stop directflight to her destination and is not a resident of thedestination country. A visitor may make more thanone trip, and each trip counts as a new visit. That is, aperson who makes two trips to a destination as de-scribed above counts as two visitors to that destina-tion. A person on the return leg home does not countas a visitor.

Visitor Spend: The estimated total amount that visi-tors spend in the destination city/country. It excludes

air ticket expenditure required to get the visitor to thedestination city.

Origin City: The city from which passengers embarkon their flight to the destination city. Passengers whocount as visitors may be residents of the origincity/country or may be non-residents from other coun-tries (but not the destination city/country)

Destination City:

The city where passengers disembark (leave the airport)and are counted as visitors (which only includes non-residents of the destination city/country)

Appendix B Table 1. Data Sources

Data Sources

1. IMF World Economic Outlook Database.

2. The growth rates of total visitors and cross-border spend-ing for the top ten destination cities in each of the key re-gions of the world are presented in the regional sections.

29 MasterCard Worldwide Insights

Appendix B Table 1. Data Sources

Source

OAG

IATA

UNWTO

National Tourism Boards

UN

IMF

CEIC

WTTC

Dynamic One-Year-Forward Flight Schedules

Traffic by Flight Stage and Load Factors

Country Based Tourism Statistics

Country Based Tourism Statistics

Trade in Services

WEO Database

Global Database

World Tourism Indicators

Indicator(s)

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Q2 2012 30

About the Author

Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, Ph.D.

Yuwa Hedrick-Wong is currently HSBC Visiting Professorof International Business at the University of British Co-lumbia, Canada.

Yuwa is an economist and business strategist with25 years of experience gained in over thirty countries.He is a Canadian who grew up in Vancouver, British Co-lumbia, and spent the last 20 years working in Europe,Sub-Sahara Africa, the Indian Sub-continent, and Asia/Pacific. He has served as strategy advisor to over thirtyleading multinational companies in the Asia/Pacific re-gion.

In 2010, Yuwa was appointed as Global EconomicAdvisor to MasterCard Worldwide. Prior to this role, hewas Economic Advisor to MasterCard in Asia/Pacific, aposition he held since 2001. His other appointmentsare: Advisor at Southern Capital Group, a private equityfund (since 2007); member of the Investment Councilof ICICI, India’s largest private bank (since 2008); andAdjunct Professor at the School of Management, FudanUniversity, Shanghai, China (since 2006).

Yuwa is a frequent speaker at international confer-ences and a regular commentator in the broadcast andprint media on economic, policy and business issues.He is a published author on consumer markets, eco-nomic development, trade, and international relations.He was voted “Communicator of the Year” in Asia in2006 by the Asia/Pacific Association of Public RelationsProfessionals. He wrote a regular column in Forbes Asiacalled “Asian Angles” in 2005 and 2006.and guest lec-turer at the Graduate School of Business, University ofChicago from 2004- 06.

As a student of philosophy, political science, andeconomics, Yuwa studied at Trent University and pur-sued post-graduate training at the University of British

Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Canada,where he received his Ph.D. He also received training, atthe post-doctoral level, in health economics, energy andenvironmental economics, and scenario forecast andplanning.

He lives with his wife and two cats on Salt Spring Is-land, off the west coast of Canada, and is an eager ap-prentice in the fine art of gardening.

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